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Italeri Crusader III


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Hi all,

 

Firstly, my apologies, these photos are not the best - quickies taken on my phone!

 

This is my Italeri Crusader Mk.III which I have finally decided to call finished after many, many months of on-off tinkering and faffing! It's more or less out of the box although I have made the front fenders a little more accurate, scratchbuilt a rudimentary turret interior with radio (because the open hatch is huge!) and improved the searchlight with a Little Cars lens.

 

The figures are from MiniArt and Resicast. The MiniArt ones are the chap leaning on the front of the tank with cigarette and the seated one, who has a head from the remains of an ancient Airfix Multipose US Marine set and a beret courtesy of an Airfix Multipose British Infantry kit! The Resicast figure carries a 'liberated' German jerry can instead of the original flimsy and is one of the grumpiest looking blokes I've ever seen committed to resin!!! :)

 

The barbed wire is scratchbuilt as I needed something to put in the corner that wasn't bushes, sand or rocks! Other bits and bobs are mostly from Bronco except for the compo box which is scratched and cast by my own fair hand.

 

I'm not the best figure painter in the world but I'm quite pleased with how the whole thing has turned out. I thought I'd take some quick pictures before my cats wreck it...! I'll take some better ones if anyone's interested.

 

Cheers,Mark

CrusaderIII-1_zps7mvmq3zz.jpg

CrusaderIII-2_zpswyfkmraj.jpg

CrusaderIII-3_zpsteedjnxz.jpg

CrusaderIII-BW_zpstqsnbfs4.jpg

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Not bad, I do not get in too well for the photos, but the figures seem quite acceptable, I'm also not good with that subject ... sigh
Your cats can believe something dangerous to see a little boy with so much sand ... lol :goodjob:

Cheers and HNY :santa:

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Excellent little dio/vignette. My next project may very well be set in North Africa, and I'm pondering over a Crusader....  so thanks for sharing.

 

Rearguards,

Badder.

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Excellent build and finish and nothing wrong with the photos. I've built a few of these and although they are good, accurate kits, they at getting a bit long in the tooth and are crying out for a new one from one of the big boys.

 

John.

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Thanks everyone for the kind words. I didn't really plan this as a dio, I started building the tank then decided it needed some 'context' so decided to place it in a small scene - hence the 'Benghazi Burner' and the crew making a brew. I always prefer the idea of 'off duty' scenes like this rather than 'action' scenes...and it fits nicely with my love of tea! :)

 

I've always been a fan of the Crusader. It may not have been the best tank ever, but it certainly looks good - like a sports tank!

 

As Bullbasket says, the Italeri kit is getting on a bit now but still stands up reasonably well with a bit of TLC. I forgot to say I replaced the kit main gun barrel with a turned metal one. That made a significant difference to the look of the model as it's a bit of a focal point.

 

This is my second 1/35 armour model - the first being Tamiya's lovely Cromwell. I'm inspired to make a similar small scenic base for that as well now.

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  • 4 months later...

I may be a bit behind the times but it was only after seeing HL-10's wonderful Valentine that I discovered Tamiya were also re-releasing Italeri's Crusader III - with fixed fenders (at last!) and other goodies. This reminded me that I'd found some WIP photos of my Italeri build so thought I'd post them if anyone's interested?

 

A basic turret interior with scratch-built radio - I soon realised this was need when I saw the size of the hatches!

CrusaderIII-radio_zpstsp40sdl.jpg

 

Wheels painted, tracks and skirts fitted, incorrect Italeri fender modified, primer on...

CrusaderIII-WIP-2_zpsqdtxifrn.jpg

 

A bit of technicolour pre-shading...

CrusaderIII-preshade_zpsmkx6min3.jpg

 

Camo going on...

CrusaderIII-WIP-1_zpssqpozmkl.jpg

 

Crew coming together, including the world's grumpiest looking soldier!

CrusaderIII-crew_zpsmncvizsx.jpg

 

Finished!

CrusaderIII-finished_zpsj3lhbui4.jpg

 

Edited by StephenMG
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